It must depend what you cook. I don't do fried, spitty type dishes and the grout around the largish tiles in my now 10 year old kitchen is as good as new. I rubbed car wax into the freshly laid grout lines, same as I did in the bathroom. It also depends on how much light bounces around your kitchen, glass being so reflective shows up smears with light on it. Just above the kettle in the first photo is a good example. Each to their own, I'm a non-glass girl whenever I can get away with it.

This is one which we installed recently for one of our clients in Darlinghurst NSW. They are getting quite popular these days. Mirrored one we did for a project in Lilyfield NSW - David Chahine Primal Glass Replacement https://primalglassreplacement.com.au/ Phone: 02 6190 0767

Glass lookalikes as I understand are even less suitable near gas. What about benchtop material? What have you got? The quartz benchtops continuing up the wall can look really good. So that achieves the seamless look though not the glassy look. You'd have to check the rules but if the gas cooker is surrounded by it anyway that might be doable?

Can you get a couple of samples and test them? I can imagine as with other surfaces, the gloss is easier to clean than the matt, unless perhaps the matt is treated with some kind of coating, as Kate described. The people who have told you about the difference in maintenance are right to make sure you know there is a difference. But maybe the difference isn't that significant if your personal preference is the matt? It might be worth getting a sample of each and taking it home and spilling some typical cooktop splashes on them, letting them dry and seeing how they clean up after? That might help you decide if the matt would be much more trouble or not too bad.